Angelo State University hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, Aug. 1, to mark the official opening of the new Hunter Strain Engineering Laboratories.

Tours of the new facility, on the east side of campus at 2225 Vanderventer Ave., followed the ceremony.

Participating in the ribbon-cutting were Mary Louise Strain, widow of the new facility’s namesake, Charles Hunter Strain; ASU President Brian J. May; Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert Duncan; Jamie Akin, ASU vice president for development and alumni relations; and William Kitch, chair of ASU’s David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering.

Construction of the 8,500-square-foot facility was funded by an anonymous gift donated in spring 2014. Ground was broken in October 2016, according to an ASU news release.

The opening of the new laboratories marks the latest milestone for ASU’s engineering program, which has grown to include seven full-time faculty members and more than 100 students enrolled in engineering courses.

The program was approved by the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents in spring 2014.

In August 2014, ASU was awarded a five-year, $2.87 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support implementation of the proposed civil engineering program, the release stated.

The grant was awarded under the USDE’s Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions program for a cooperative project between ASU and Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde that is titled “Strengthening the Engineering Pipeline in West Texas” (STEP West Texas).

In April 2015, ASU was officially approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to begin offering a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (B.S.C.E.) degree for the fall 2015 semester, the release stated.

That June, Kitch, former professor of engineering at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, was named the first chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, and more than 50 engineering students began studies that fall.

In May 2016, local businessman David L. Hirschfeld and his family stepped forward with a $1 million gift to rename the Department of Civil Engineering as the David L. Hirschfeld Department of Engineering.

ASU has also received further anonymous gifts of $100,000 to purchase laboratory equipment and $20,000 to fund the program’s first endowed scholarship, the release stated.